At 19:46 -0500 03/28/2002, Richard Welty wrote: > >the GC/AMP/Leviton stuff comes in a couple of variants, some jacks have >Telco style 110 punch downs, which are easiest to do with an actual >punchdown tool. others are a snap type affair you can do with your fingers.
Richard, do you have an opinion on which system is better? I used punch down on the theory that something you punched down was likely to make a better connection, but it was mostly just an assumption rather than an informed opinion. This reminds me of something else though. After installing your cable and terminating the ends (punching to jacks) you'll want to test your connections. Do you have a continuity tester such as an ohmmeter? Out of the thirty-seven jacks I installed in my house I found four I think that were bad in at least one wire and had to be redone. Don't snap the jacks into the wall plates until you've tested the continuity because it's usually very akward to connect wires to the jack after the jack is in a wall plate and they're difficult to get out of the wall plates. Also, leave slack in case you have to just cut the end off the cable and try again. Which reminds me of something else, which Richard touched on. Not all wall plates fit perfectly with all brands of modular jacks. So test the fit before you go hog wild buying stuff, or ask someone who knows what fits with what. The easiest way to test that I found was to take a known good patch cable and patch to jacks together in the wiring closet that shared a wall plate out in the house. Then I have a couple of special ethernet cables that I made. These are just an RJ45 plug with about a foot of wire coming out. At the end of the wire, I stripped the ends of the eight wires. So, you plug one of these special cables into each of the two jacks that you've connected together at the other end. Then test for continuity between like colors. If you find a problem, it's a bit more difficult to localize, but this way you can test two cables at a time, and all the terminals are in one place. You don't have to run a 100' of cable from the wiring closet to the other end of the cable. Jeff Walther -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | PowerON Computer Services <http://www.poweron.com> REPLACEMENT PARTS in STOCK Drives, CD-ROMs, RAM, Processors, Power Supply <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
